Huawei, in competition with Tesla, will sell high-capacity renewable energy batteries in Japan

According to Nikkei Asia, Huawei will start selling large battery systems for renewable energy storage in Japan in March this year.

Japan is shifting from fossil fuels to renewables. Its goal is for renewables to account for 36 to 38 percent of total electricity generation by 2030. Temporary storage facilities are particularly important due to the lack of additional capacity in the grid.

Huawei is already a supplier of small household battery systems in Japan. Now, the Chinese tech giant will buy small battery packs from the CATL era and combine them into container-sized units, each of which can store 2,000 kilowatt-hours of electrical energy — about 200 times that of a standard home battery.

In addition, the container capacity can be adjusted according to the needs of the buyer. It is worth mentioning that Tesla is also in the field of renewable energy storage systems that Huawei is involved in. Tesla has been selling its own large battery system in Japan since last year.

According to research firm Fuji Keizai, the Japanese solar and wind battery storage market will grow from 16.7 billion yen (C114 note: about $146 million) to 45.8 billion yen ($400 million) by 2030.

In addition, Huawei's Japanese subsidiary is also targeting the Hokkaido market, which has great potential for renewable energy generation but lacks spare grid capacity. In addition, James Chen, president of Huawei Japan, said that Japan has "rapidly developed solar technology and reduced costs."

Tesla, on the other hand, installed its first Megapack last April at Takasago Thermal Engineering in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. The system controls the flow of electricity from solar and biomass gasification facilities.

This summer, it prepares to launch a megapack in Hokkaido that connects directly to the transmission grid, operated by global engineering, an emerging power provider.

Japan Renewable Energy, a power company recently acquired by oil wholesaler Eneos Holdings, said it was using Tesla's battery system in a demonstration project. (C114 Jiang Junmu)